hints on portable satellite dish

[hoggers]

anybody have any preference on potable satellite dishes, any help would be appreciated.

[Foxfire]

I have a satellite dish on the roof of the camper. it seems that from may first to October first anywhere we go we cant get a signal through the trees.
I bought a Weingart Carry out. it works fine. I can position it so that anywhere theres a hole in the trees I can get a signal. It is not capable of HD, and sometimes in my old age it's hard to remember the settings from one antenna to the other. But once it's setup it works well for the season almost anywhere we go. It seems like everytime we move need to call Direct TV for a refresh and then it works fine. Once the leaves are off the trees it's back to the campers antenna and HD if I can remeber all the setting I need to change. It works fine though.
Steve

[xtasee]

We went with the Traveler SK-1000 for Dish Network. It has HD and is fully automatic. When I go camping, the last thing I need is to fight satellite issues....

Ask me how I know.

[atom ant]

It looks like the Winegard Dish Playmaker is the latest portable for Dish Network and its only $299.

I second the vote for the SK-1000! Between auto leveling and the SK-1000 antenna finding the satellites for me, it can take almost two Martini's of watching to get setup for camp

[brenkco]

I have a Dish Tailgater. It receives HD (as do most portables) for Dish but not DirectTV.
I still use it on occasion mostly for a smaller second RV. It is simple to set up and use plus it has the advantage to locate it with a clear path when camped in trees.

There are a few disadvantages that are issues to some. One is that it is compatible with single turner receivers. In other words, it can only receive one channel at a time. Some come with a 2nd coax port, but since the dish can only pull one satellite at a time, the second receiver is restricted to those channels.

The other disadvantage I found is that the farther north we traveled, the more atmosphere the small dish had to navigate to obtain signals. Even in somewhat mild weather, I found that I lost HD signal. This wasn't ever a problem in the southern US.

Lastly, the portable dish uses software to locate the 3 satellites and holds the location info in ram. If you boondock and change ac sources or have a power outage, the portable dish has to go through the set up process from the beginning, that takes about 20 minutes or so (a problem when watching football!).

Ultimately, I decided to go with a standard dish on a tripod. (I'm too cheap to do the roof mount, plus we camp often in trees). I figured that these youngsters that install dishes can aim them quickly, I could learn too! Armed with a good meter, I can set my dish up in just a few minutes, so that is my preference. I travel with my Dish Hopper and a wireless Joey.

Ken

[rob_fla]

I am still "Old School" and use a Tri Pod with my Satellite Dish.
I move every couple of weeks year round and can typically aim and setup the dish in about 5 to 10 minutes.
Use my phone app to locate the Satellites for a clear view, have a pretty good meter that I plug into the dish to tune it in.
Since I have 100 Ft of Cable, I can usually find a clear shot through the trees.

[hobie16]

First, I have a Dish system and I travel in the NE and SE including TX. In order to receive the local channels in the NE you need an eastern arc antenna (72 & 61.5 sats) and in TX I need a western arc (110, 119, 129 sats) The tailgater antennas can only tune to the western arc sats and are limited to single sat at a time. If using a tailgater in the NE you can still receive the locals but only in SD. I have a Dish DPP 1K.2 antenna and two LNB assemblies (3 LNB unit for the west and 2 LNB unit for the east) It is a simple matter to swap.
The key to easy set up lies with getting the tripod mast truly plumb and secure before mounting the antenna. Download the pointing angles, azimuth, and skew values for your location from the Dish webite or from Dishpointer.com. carefully set the skew and elevation angles and use a compass to approximate the right direction (your aiming the dish not the LNB arm).
Next you need to get a reading of signal strength. You can do this if you can see you TV setup screen but in most cases I can't so I have devised an alternate method. I use a bluetooth streamer to broadcast the audio tone from the setup screen and pair to a wireless speaker. Then with the speaker at the antenna site I slowly sweep the antenna until I get a tone change and then fine tune to hear the peak tone. Move right - left and up and down '
With the tripod setup I can drive up to 3 receivers and also my two room DVR receiver.

[rob_fla]

I run the Dish HD 3LNB / Western Arc from Key West Florida to Northern NY across Texas to California and had no problem picking up the satellites and getting local channels at any CG I have stayed at in the last 5 years.

I use my Dish Pointer App on my I Phone to make sure I have a clear shot of the satellites and a general direction.
I level my tripod, put the Dish on then plug in my Accutrak III meter to the Dish and start moving the dish left to right, up and down to find the signal from all three Satellites, then I peak the three strength level bars and lock the Dish down.

Then take the cable and connect it to my coach and watch TV.

Typically takes me about 10 minutes from the time I start getting the Dish / Tripod and stuff out of the storage bay till I am watching TV.

I then go to Dish Tech Support Chat and give them my current location (address, city and Zip), have local channels in about 5 to 10 minutes.

Been doing it this way for 5 years now, no problems.

[BobH]

You got that right xtasee, I had a VuQube ,work great but climbing up the ladder to position it ,the rest was easy but took 5-15 min to get signal. Now I installed a traveler 1000 and it's automatic no more climbing ladders. Best investment I did so far.
Bob H

[BobH]

Pictures of old satellite and the new Wingard Sk-1000. Hope video came thru
BobH

[riciren]

We had the Winegard GM-1518 Carryout White Automatic Portable Satellite and when we bought our 36FL it came with the Winegard SK-1000 TRAV'LER Gray/Black DISH, both work great.